where i belong

It’s pushing a trolley through a Cape Town Pick n’ Pay and asking where to find the ketchup instead of the to-MAH-to sauce, calculating the exchange rate between dollars and rands, and wondering how many millileters are in an ounce. It’s signing the credit credit card slip and being asked if that’s really your surname, and then a quizzical look before, “…Why?” It’s answering with an American twang why you have a Tswana surname, and still being unsure whether the cashier believes you. It’s climbing into the driver’s seat on the right hand side of the car, rolling down your window a crack to tip the car guard with a five rand coin before stepping on the clutch to drive your stick shift in the left lane.

It’s going back “home” to the States and realizing your twang has been sanded down over the years, softened and eroded after a decade abroad, and having local natives ask you where you’re from.

It’s that nagging awareness that you don’t really fit here or there, and then the subsequent, beautiful freedom of eyes being opened and knowing that

we’re not supposed to.

As long as we’re living in the in-between, in the already-not yet, in the waiting room between the fall and redemption, we’re not supposed to.

Dumela, mma! 😉 In SA, my name was Keamogetswe Tladinyane. Even in the name, there was belonging. Keamogetswe-I am welcomed. (Though if you know Tswana, you know that LOL) You aren’t the only one rediscovering who you are in this once-familiar-now-strange place, and learning to belong again.

I love the song from Building 429. Perfect! I was touched by your words about living in the in-between because so many times that’s where we find ourselves. The glory is that we do have a home and it is with Christ. Lovely post. Blessings, Mary!

Incredible perspective, Kate. I loved this. “As long as we’re living in the in-between, in the already-not yet, in the waiting room between the fall and redemption, we’re not supposed to.” …This resonated. Big time.

Beautifully said. We don’t belong here, and sometimes I have to remind myself of that. It seems as though the gap between us and this world is widening. But maybe that’s what God wants. I guess that as the world gets darker, our light shines more brightly.

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